Tag Archives: Foxconn

Chic Kony Youth infographical photoshop by Edward Stafford with all due apologies to Sonic Youth and Raymond Pettibon.

Every now and then, I just have to sort of turn off the Internets and remind myself that there is a world around me that I am not powerless against and where my actions do make a difference. Usually these actions involve making sure my son doesn’t break a limb or paint the floor silver. This past week, it’s meant dropping out to finish some gratifying crafty projects and spending time with people who have become very dear to me. I enjoy dropping out and venturing into the real world. I used to think it was so much worse than the virtual world that springs into existence when I hit the Safari or Firefox icons. But lately, that virtual world has become the bigger drag.

In the last week, a confluence of media clusterfuckery wafted across the binary landscape like that scary fucking dust storm that swept across Australia. Or was it Arizona? First, there was the Kony 2012 bear trap that Paul documented here. I can’t add anything useful that hasn’t already been screamed across the Tweetisphere or Facebookistan. Between everyone trying to tell me what I should think– or worse yet, how I should feel about it– I have to admit that I really just don’t fucking care.

There’s a term for this — Compassion Fatigue. There is just so much of a shit one person can give. Yes, what Joseph Kony is responsible for is reprehensible. Yes, something should be done about it. And yes, it’s a good thing that people are being made aware of it. But I honestly believe that Invisible Children made things worse. It’s the same problem that arose over the weekend with this douche nozzle:

Mike Daisey: pathological liar dirtbag infographical photoblop by Edward Stafford with apologies to all the 13-year-old girls who don't really work at Foxconn

I’m a big fan of This American Life. I love Ira Glass and have a deep appreciation for the magic he and the crew bring to the radio box every week. So I was stunned to hear this weekend’s show, “Retraction,” which is basically an hour long apology and serious look at how one of their most popular shows, “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory” was mostly a fabrication.

If you’re unfamiliar with the show, it’s basically an hour-long exposé of the shitty working conditions at Foxconn, the Chinese superfactory where many computer companies, including Apple, have their ideas turned into reality. As you might imagine, the shitty conditions at the Chinese superfactory are pretty fucking shitty. Like, way worse than working at Wal Mart or Starbucks. This particular episode of This American Life was based on Mike Daisey’s one-man play, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, which was supposed to be based on his reporting done in China while he posed as a fatcat businessman, which I imagine he pulls off convincingly. The problem is, well, he just made a bunch of shit up.

Which is fine. I’m a big fan of making shit up. But I don’t try to pass it off as the truth. There needs to be a disclaimer, like when you go to the movies and it says something like “this film is based on actual events.” You know it’s been cooked a bit for dramatic effect and it’s okay because the filmmakers gave you a knowing wink. I understand that maybe Daisey thought that because it was This American Life, he could get away with not telling the whole truth and call it creative license and claim the high ground because he brought these deplorable conditions to the attention of millions of people.

Which brings us back to the Kony Kids and what they have in common with fellow numbskull, Mike Daisey. There’s a danger in playing this game where you insert yourself into the story. When it’s your story, you embellish, embroider, and embiggen. It’s hardwired into our DNA. When the story is about something particularly heinous, like Joseph Kony or the terrible conditions at Foxconn, isn’t it enough that the story is terrible? Why the need to make it more terrible through exaggeration, misstatement of fact, or not being upfront with your reasons for bringing the story to light? It’s pretty obvious that the purveyors of both of these stories are attention whores and it’s maddening that the media doesn’t call them out on it.

But the worst thing is that, just like that other famous attention whore, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, these guys ultimately do more harm than good and end up as dinner for the wolf. Wolf Blitzer. The important stories they try to bring to light become secondary to the rise and fall of the hero. Daisey and the Kony Kids become the story, the media looks at their belly buttons and wonders how the fuck they got duped, and everyone forgets about Foxconn and Kony because it was all just made up, right?